Cleartone Artists Atreyu are BACK!!

Famed SoCal metal band and Cleartone artists Atreyu, are back in action! Just last month, Dan Jacobs stopped by the Cleartone Strings booth to sign autographs at NAMM 2015, and a new interview has been released, featuring drummer/co-vocalist Brandon Saller talking with the Australian music publication, Music Feeds at Soundwave Festival 2015. You can find the full interview video below. Here are some of the highlights (transcribed by blabbermouth.net).

Regarding how Atreyu approached their comeback album:

“I feel like we have too much of a history to not embrace the fact that we have been around, which we’re very lucky for. But I feel like we’re coming back with just the… There’s no real agenda other than make music we love and have fun. We just don’t want it to be… Music had turned into such a business and such a daily grind… These shows we’ve played so far, since we’ve been back, feel like they did when we were 17 years old; it feels like that again, which is I believed how it should be. So we’re just kind of embracing that whole feeling, and, like I said before, just doing things that are fun. And so far it’s been great.”

Brandon then gave insight to Atreyu’s upcoming album progress:

“We just finished tracking the record, for the most part, four days before we left for [The Soundwave Festival]. So it’s essentially done. We still have to mix and do all that crap. But I think the new record should be out, like, September/October. So I’m sure throughout the summer there’ll be other tidbits and new singles and stuff like that. But, yeah, we’re stoked. It came out great. We’re very much just shooting from the hip with this record, and whatever came out first is what we did. [Vocalist] Alex [Varkatzas] is f—–g as brutal as ever. And it’s fun. It’s a very fun, cool record.”

Regarding Alex Varkatzas’ choice to do no clean vocals on Atreyu’s upcoming album:

“Here’s the thing. When we started the band, we were a hardcore band, and we wanted to progress and do… We always wanted to do bigger, better, bigger, better, bigger, better… every [album we released] at the time. And when we did [2007’s] ‘Lead Sails Paper Anchor’, it was, like, ‘What’s our next step?’ We’ve gotten as big as a hardcore band can get, I think. What’s the next step? So we were, like, ‘Cool. Let’s f—ing do whatever the f— we want. So we wrote a bunch of rock songs. A lot of heavy songs, a lot of rock songs… It was just an expansion of Alex wanting to do something different, and us wanting to do something different. We did ‘Lead Sails’, and it was a f—–g really great record, and it sold a lot of records and it opened our band up to radio, opened our band up to tour with a lot of different bands we never would have before, and it was fun for us. But I think everyone loves their comfort zone and everyone just loves what they do, and it was kind of, like, ‘It was rad to write this record and it was cool to tour it,’ and whatever, but ‘I just wanna get there and f—–g be pissed and go f—–g apeshit.’ And we love that about him too. So I think going away for a while and not being in this band and coming back and being able to think about what you love most about the band… I mean, those were conversations that we had… Like, what do we love most? What’s out strong suit? What do we feel most comfortable doing? ‘Cause that’s what we wanna do, ’cause that’s the most fun. So I think, for him, he was, like, ‘I just wanna f—ing come out and rip people’s heads off.’ So it was, like, ‘All right. Cool. You don’t wanna sing? You don’t sing. That’s how we started. I’ll sing. And you just f—ing go nuts.’ And everyone’s stoked on it. And he’s doing different sh–. He’s doing a lot of different stuff on the new record — different s— he’s never done before. But it’s brutal. It’s f—ing awesome.”

Looking for heavy? You got it! Alex Varkatzas stated in online comments recently, “We’re trying to get back to where we were when we first started the band; all we wanted to do was f—–g destroy a 300-person-capacity club. We just want to go back to fast and heavy.” They’re straying from melodic vocals, something fans of Atreyu’s original sound will appreciate, as Alex stated,

“…Absolutely no melodic vocals on my end. AMEN! Happy to get back to my roots and still bring in some new tricks. My brothers and I have made our best record yet. Can’t wait to share it with you all.”

This may not come as a huge surprise to long time fans as drummer Brandon Saller has always handled the lions share of melodic vocals. Alex dropped hints that they may not be the only two singing on this album as he states, “We may have some guest hardcore, punk and metal vocalists legends on this record. I’m beyond excited at the chance!”